


Chat Ears

by Nomolosk



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Birthday, Birthday Presents, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:06:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28194414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nomolosk/pseuds/Nomolosk
Summary: Adrien gets a fantastic birthday present that he can't wait to show off at school. Accidental reveals ensue.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 38
Kudos: 299





	Chat Ears

**Author's Note:**

  * For [QueenCorb_Starrgazer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenCorb_Starrgazer/gifts).



> Merry Christmas QueenCorber! This is your gift for the Secret Santa Exchange on the Lovesquare Obsessed server. I hope you enjoy it!

Adrien sighed as he ate a solitary breakfast, but not sadly. It was his birthday, and despite the fact that there were no special family plans, he knew his friends wouldn’t forget him. Nino had texted him the night before, letting him know that there would be a “surprise” party for him at school. Still, it would be better if neither Nathalie nor his father knew about it, lest they command him not to participate, or worse- call the school and forbid the party in the first place- so he said nothing as he left the house.

When he got to school he went straight to the classroom, eager to see if his friends were going to try for a true surprise party, or if there would be evidence. To his delight, there was a banner that said Happy Birthday, balloons and crepe paper streamers adorning his side of the desk, and there was a small table set up with boxes of cupcakes and an empty punch bowl just waiting to be filled.

There was also a small pile of presents that grew steadily larger as his classmates arrived. Chloe even refrained from throwing herself on him. This year there were no over-the-top gestures from her, as she simply tossed a small, gold wrapped gift onto the top of the pile. She didn’t even have Sabrina do it for her. Adrien’s heart swelled at this small sign of her continued progress. The whole day, he couldn’t stop smiling- a real smile, not a model smile. Even though the party couldn’t be held until the last half of the last hour of the day, just the sight of the preparations warmed his heart and made him feel giddy.

The day flew by, and Adrien tried to cherish every moment of it. Everyone offered him a pat on the back and well wishes as he left for lunch, but Nino and Alya gave him hugs, and Marinette even kissed his cheek again, though it took a little spastic flailing and a deep breath for her to get there. After that, even the prospect of eating a nutritionally balanced, but uninteresting meal alone at home didn’t have the power to damp his spirits. 

By the end of the day he was almost vibrating with excitement, and when Ms. Bustier finally dismissed them for the party, Adrien hopped up and sidled over to the present pile, picking up this one or that one to see who they were from and surreptitiously shake them a little. He knew it wasn’t polite to gloat or gush- he certainly didn’t think it was attractive when Chloe did it- but he couldn’t help wishing to anyway. He was especially looking forward to whatever gift Marinette had gotten him. He’d seen what she gave other members of their class, and he couldn’t help wanting something that had been made just for him.

The party progressed along the usual lines, though of course for Adrien it was all new. Everyone sang the birthday song, then a sweetly smiling Marinette presented him with a single cupcake that had a lit birthday candle on it. Alya reminded him to make a wish.

Adrien took a deep breath, blinked back tears (of gratitude), and blew out the candle. Then it was time to open the presents. He opened gifts that made him laugh and groan and smile politely, but he was honestly grateful for them all. When he opened Marinette’s present- a pair of hand-knitted gloves that somehow matched the scarf he’d gotten last year  _ perfectly _ \- he thought it couldn’t get any better than that. But when he looked, there was still one more to open.

Adrien tore the wrapping off the last present, briefly noting that it was from Nino. His interest piqued again. He wasn’t sure anything could top Marinette’s gift, but Nino knew him pretty well by now...

Sure enough, when he pulled the last of the wrapping paper off the box, he stared in wonder. Without a word, he turned the box to open it. 

Just then, the bell for the end of the day rang, and though everyone stayed seated, he could feel the mood of the room change. He smiled and everyone for the party, and then they all got up and started gathering their things. Alya reminded Alix and Kim that they had a bet on who could clean up the fastest, and before Adrien knew it, all the party things were cleared away and he was accepting a small box of leftover cupcakes from Marinette. Then Mylene handed him a large bag full of the gifts he’d already opened, and he spied a small list of presents and gifters lying on top.

Adrien thanked her, pulled the list out and added Nino’s gift to it- his name had already been written in, in Mylene’s spiky handwriting. He wished there had been time to open it and show it off, but the classroom was almost empty, so he just left with the last stragglers. But he promised himself he would bring it tomorrow, even if he could only wear it during the break.

\----

Adrien got home, breezing past Nathalie with a hasty statement that school was fine. He wanted to get to his room as quickly as possible and open Nino’s present.

Once he was in his room with the door closed, he dumped his messenger bag beside his desk chair, sat down, and grabbed the box out of the top of the gift bag. Getting a letter opener out of his drawer, he slit the tape over the box closures and opened it with trembling fingers. He eased the packaging out, and took extra care cutting the clamshell open. Then, finally, he lifted his prize out of the package, taking brief note of the included wireless charging dock and the small booklet of instructions that came with the headband.

On a semi-flexible silicon covered headband sat two blocky plastic nubs, a battery pack, and two sensors- one that was supposed to sit on his forehead, and another which was supposed to clip to his earlobe. Included were two furry black ears that slid over the robotic parts.

Adrien squeed. “Plagg, look! Look at them!” 

He quickly slipped the furry covers on, then rushed over to the mirror to put on the headband. He spotted Plagg floating behind him as he adjusted everything and pressed the power button. The ears rotated on the headband- going through some kind of calibration sequence- and Plagg zipped backwards, startled.

“What are  _ those?” _ he almost hissed.

“Nino gave them to me, they’re so awesome!” Adrien gushed. “Look there are sensors that react to brainwaves, and the ears will move depending on how I’m feeling!”

Plagg crossed his little arms and pouted. “I don’t know why you’re so excited- it’s not like you don’t have much better cat ears every time you transform.”

Adrien laughed. “Yeah, but I can’t be Chat Noir all the time, Plagg!” 

He looked back at his reflection. It was true that he looked a little weird with the headband on. The ears were much taller than the ones he had when Plagg transformed him, and they sat closer together as well. Not to mention that without the mask and the messy hair, they looked strange just sitting there on top of his head. But a grin slowly took over his face. 

“... I love them.”

“Well,  _ I hate them.” _

Adrien shot a glare at his kwami and the ears went flat. “Plagg, if you destroy these I swear I won’t give you anything but yogurt for a month.”

Plagg just scoffed. “Psh, yeah right, good luck carrying something like that around with you discreetly.”

“Oh, I didn’t say it’d be  _ good _ yogurt. You know they make these plastic tubes of sweet yogurt for little kids now, right? Those would be  _ easy _ to carry around.”

Plagg gasped. “You wouldn’t!”

Adrien narrowed his eyes at him, “You break these, and  _ I will.” _

Plagg turned his back and zipped off. “Fine.  _ I won’t touch them.” _

Adrien rolled his eyes and sat down at his desk, pulling out a stack of generic Thank You cards. The ears stayed perked up as he started writing, humming happily.

\----

The next day, Adrien carefully stashed the cat ears with the Thank You notes in his school bag after breakfast. He couldn’t wait to show everyone.

The morning passed uneventfully until their first break, though he made sure to pass out the cards first thing. A couple of students- namely Kim and Alix- looked genuinely confused to get the note, but writing Thank You cards was something Adrien had been taught to do since he was old enough to scribble uneven letters, even when the only people he had to give them to were his parents and Chloe.

When it was time for the morning break, he waited until everyone was out of the classroom before retrieving and putting on the cat ears. His side swept bangs didn’t quite hide the forehead sensor, but he didn’t really mind that.

Once he was sure the calibration was over with, he walked out into the courtyard and straight up to Nino, who was chatting with Max and Kim. They were discussing the mechanics of the new Ultimate Mecha Strike update and Adrien jumped right in, knowing this was his chance to get them to notice the ears.

“No, it’s not overpowered,” Adrien said, in response to Kim’s assertion that they would have to nerf one of the builds because it was overpowered. “You just have to know and target the weak points!”

Nino, Max, and Kim turned to look at him and he fought to keep his smile from stretching too wide in anticipation of their reactions. Kim took one look and burst out laughing, Max blinked and adjusted his glasses, and Nino said, “Hey, you’re wearing them! I guess that means you like them?”

Adrien threw his arms around Nino in an enthusiastic hug. “ _ Like _ them? I love them! Thank you so much!” 

“Hey, those kind of remind me of those pictures Alya took when you and Marinette were going to be Ladybug and Chat Noir in that music video!” Kim said after he stopped laughing. Adrien felt a moment of panic, and heard the ears on his head start to swivel down… quickly he thought of something positive, realizing that having the ears react to actual emotions might not be the best plan.

Max narrowed his eyes at him again and said, “An astute observation, Kim. They are too tall and not made of the right materials, nor are they positioned properly, but it is undeniable that you do have a certain resemblance to Chat Noir, Adrien.”

Adrien felt his face freeze, but Nino came to his rescue- or so he thought. “Oh yeah- and y’all should see how much Ladybug merch he has. I swear, I almost got him the red and black spotted fuzzy ears because he loves Ladybug  _ that _ much.” Nino chuckled, slinging an arm around Adrien’s stiff shoulders. “But then I remembered that he’s always defending Chat Noir’s supposed ‘coolness’ to everyone, so I got the black ears instead.” 

Adrien flushed. “Chat Noir  _ is _ cool,” he insisted, “And I-I don’t have  _ that _ much Ladybug merch.”

“Shyeah,” was all Nino said. 

Adrien swallowed and quickly looked around the courtyard, hoping to find an excuse to change the topic. It was then that he noticed Marinette. She was standing by the other girls, but she wasn’t paying any attention to whatever it was they were laughing about. Instead, she was staring at  _ him. _ And she was wearing that look that always confused him- the one where he wasn’t quite sure if she was terrified or not.

She’d always been jumpy around him, but she had been getting better lately- not that he really minded. So many girls either went giggly around him or tried too hard to seem mature. Marinette’s stutters and jumpiness were honestly a breath of fresh air. Plus, she seemed to get over whatever it was if they got a chance to talk properly for more than a few minutes, and that was nice, too.

“I wonder what’s wrong with Marinette,” he said, before his brain caught up with his mouth. He blushed again, feeling bad that he called attention to her when she was doing… whatever it was she was doing. He’d gotten the feeling more than once that she got embarrassed when her reactions betrayed her.

But it got the attention off of him. The guys all looked at Marinette, then at him… and there was something in all their eyes that made him curious. It was almost… pity? He brushed the thought aside as Nino waved his hand.

“Oh, you know Marinette. She’s probably dreaming up some new design or something based on your ears.”

“You think so?” Adrien asked, hopeful. Maybe that would give him an excuse to go over and talk to her. If the guys were right and he really did look like Chat Noir wearing the ears… she might relax more. He still remembered that night he’d taken her to see his surprise for Ladybug, and how easily she’d trusted Chat Noir to carry her safely. She’d been sympathetic too. And then there was the time she’d confessed her love for him- Chat Noir, him. All of a sudden, he was determined to go over and talk to her. The ears were giving him some of the same confidence he usually had as Chat Noir, though not as much since he didn’t have the mask as well.

Nino was still talking, though. “Oh yeah, she showed Alya a whole bunch of outfits and stuff she drew based on our heroes.”

“I’ll go see if I can help then,” he declared, making his escape. “Maybe I could model some of it!”

He slipped away from Nino and went straight over to her. Marinette’s eyes widened comically, flicking up to the ears on top of his head before coming back down to his face. Adrien reached up to see if maybe one of the ear covers was coming off or something… but no, everything there was fine.

“Hey, Marinette,” he said in a softer tone than normal, not wanting to startle her. She smiled widely and spoke- perhaps a  _ bit _ too loudly, but it was an improvement on suddenly losing her balance and falling over.

“H-hey there, Adrien!”

“I saw you looking at my ears over there,” Adrien said, pointing back over his shoulder. He gave himself a mental pat on the back for being right- she wasn’t nearly as spastic as she sometimes was around him. “I didn’t get to show everyone yesterday because they were the last present I opened, but Nino got them for me. Aren’t they cool?”

“Y-yeah” she agreed weakly, giving him a thumbs up. “So chool. I mean, cat nool.  _ Cool! _ I MEAN COOL.”

Adrien couldn’t help it. His smile widened to something very like what he would indulge in when he was transformed. “Yeah, the guys were saying I even kinda look like Chat Noir! What do you think?” He winked at her.

Marinette started hyperventilating.

Just then, everyone’s phones buzzed, chirped, chimed, and otherwise alerted the student body that another akuma had been sighted. He pulled his phone out, noting that the akuma was, once again, lethally close to Francoise Dupont. Adrien’s gaze immediately snapped over to Alya, who was already heading for the doors, Nino in hot pursuit and yelling for her to wait. He sighed, then turned back to urge Marinette to find somewhere safe to hide.

But Marinette was already gone, so Adrien put her out of his mind, dashing off to find a place to transform.

\----

It was easy to pinpoint where the akuma was- all Chat Noir had to do was look for fleeing people and follow the flow upstream. As he got closer to the action, he started noticing that the people fleeing had definitely been hit by an akuma. It looked like the villain had gone through a crowd of people jamming grossly enlarged copies of their own heads on them- like the larger-than-life cartoon character heads Adrien had seen the one time he’d had a photoshoot at Disneyland Paris.

Most of them were weaving as they ran, stabilizing their heads with their hands. It was probably uncomfortable and disorienting, but it wasn’t even close to the weirdest thing Chat had seen akumas do, nor was it actively harmful so he just ran on, hoping to come across Ladybug soon.

A flash of red in his peripheral vision had him changing course to join his partner. Ladybug landed on a rooftop with a steep angle, climbing up to the rooftree to stay out of the akuma’s sightline. Chat landed at the base of the same roof and crawled up to join her, but refrained from saying anything until he got a good look at the akuma himself.

Peeking over the rooftree, he saw that the akuma had another ridiculously enlarged head, but it… wobbled, for lack of a better term. It seemed to be only loosely connected at the neck, so any little movement sent it madly wobbling and even spinning a little. And everytime the head wobbled, lights would shoot out of its eyes, and any human or animal the lights hit would also gain a wobbling head. 

It reminded Chat of something, a toy he’d seen, but he couldn’t remember the name of it. “What  _ is _ that?” he asked, frustrated that he couldn’t think of the right word.

“You’ve never seen a bobble-head toy?”

Chat smacked his forehead. “Of course!”

“Yeah, but seriously, a  _ bobble-head _ akuma?” Ladybug said, sounding almost offended. “What on earth would make Hawkmoth choose a design like  _ that?” _

Chat chuckled. “It does seem silly. But you have to admit-,” he said, pointing to someone who had overbalanced and collapsed. They were having a lot of trouble getting back up. “-it would be preeetty difficult to fight like that. We  _ definitely _ can’t get hit.”

Ladybug hummed in agreement and turned to him, opening her mouth- probably to tell him to distract the akuma while she figures out where the object is, which is their standard MO- only to freeze with her mouth open and finger upraised.

Chat Noir frowned at her, wondering if this akuma also somehow had freezing powers. If it did, and Ladybug just got shot… his eyes widened and he waved a hand in front of her face. She blinked. 

Chat let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, good. I was afraid this akuma also had the ability to freeze people and you’d gotten hit somehow.”

Ladybug’s mouth moved, but what came out was… not words. 

“A-guh earsum.” Then she dropped her head in her hands and  _ whimpered. _

“Um… you okay there, Ladybug?”

This time she whined and rolled onto her back, scrunching her eyes closed.  _ “Can’t… think… _ about it.” She took a deep breath and visibly steeled herself, cracking one eye open to look at him. Her entire face scrunched up and she pinched her eye shut again. Chat sat up, now thoroughly alarmed.

“LB, _ what’s wrong?” _

“Uumm… head. Ears. You. You have ears.”

“... Yes?”

“Two!” Ladybug shouted, squishing her cheeks with her hands (if Chat hadn’t been so worried, he would have found it adorable… and oddly familiar). “You have two! Sets of cat ears! On your head!”

Chat Noir’s eyes widened, and he reached up. Sure enough, his Chat Noir ears were right where they should be, somehow connecting to his head  _ through _ his hair… but he was still wearing his electronic cat ears as well.

He cursed under his breath. Plagg was going to get an  _ earful _ for this! He’d never  _ not _ covered everything up with the transformation before!

“I’m so sorry, LB, I was just goofing around with my friends before the alert came in… I must have forgotten to take them off! But I don’t know why my kwami didn’t just cover them with the transformation, that’s never happened before… I’ll talk to him about it.” He paused. “But, um… why are you freaking out so much? They’re just a fun toy. Plus, I have cat ears every time you see me!”

Ladybug groaned and started beating her forehead with her fists. “Not. Right. Now. Akuma. Fight. … Right. Gotta go fight.”

“... right,” Chat Noir agreed. “I’ll just… go distract the akuma, okay?”

Ladybug glanced at him and whimpered out an affirmative. “Just… take them off?”

But at this, Chat’s latent mischief reared its ugly little head and he smirked. “Well, I don’t know. They seem to distract  _ you _ … might work on the akuma, too!” He winked and whipped out his baton to vault himself over the roof and into the fray, but Ladybug grabbed his tail before he could.

“No! Identity!” she shouted, still averting her gaze. “You go out there wearing th-those, and then you sh-show up back at…  _ wherever _ you came from with them  _ still on…!” _

“Oh. Right,” Chat said, now biting his lip. “Well, I guess I could just leave them here for the fight, but... I don’t want to lose them, I just got them- they were a gift.”

Ladybug growled in frustration. “Fine!” she said, in a very high-pitched voice. “Just... give them here!”

Chat eased the cat ears off his head and carefully folded them, handing them over. Ladybug opened her yo-yo and put them inside. Only then did she risk looking at him again, and Chat was relieved to see her shoulders relax.  _ Then _ he vaulted over the roof and into the fray.

Fortunately, the fight didn’t take too long. Bobble-Head (yes, that was the akuma’s official, Hawkmoth approved, name), for all his unpredictability, was fairly easy to defeat. All they had to do was to get directly under him without being hit, then use Chat’s baton to elevator up and snag the infected item. Chat didn’t know what a shoelace had to do with bobble-head toys, nor did he know why Ladybug’s lucky charm was red spotted mouse ears on a headband- he didn’t think they really needed Multimouses’ ability in this fight- but in the end it didn’t matter. 

Another butterfly purified, another day saved.

They exchanged their customary fist-bump and Ladybug was just about to yo-yo away, but Chat caught her wrist.

“Uh, remember that thing I asked you to hold for me?”

Ladybug paused, then somehow tripped over  _ literally nothing _ , and fell flat on her face. And to top it off, Chat heard her earrings chirp the three minute warning. He narrowed his eyes and scooped her up, vaulting up to the roof they had originally started on to get a little privacy. She’d been fine during the fight, so why was she freaking out again just because he alluded to his  _ other _ cat ears?

“You can put me down now,” Ladybug said, her voice muffled because of the hands she’d plastered to her face.

“Only if you promise not to fall for me again,” Chat teased, as he put her down. She huffed, but lowered her hands to glare at him. “Seriously, though, you’re beginning to worry me, m’Lady. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine!” Ladybug said, not quite convincing him. “And anyway, I told you the day we met that I was madly clumsy!” 

She savagely opened her yo-yo and reached inside to pull his head band out. He could tell she really wanted to just throw the ears at him, but instead she carefully handed them over.

Chat found himself reacting as he would with Marinette, his smile softening and his voice getting quieter, hoping to soothe her.

“I’m sorry these freak you out so much, Ladybug. I’ll remember to take them off next time,” he said gently, taking the ears but also grabbing her hand and squeezing it. “Now, you’re about to detransform, so I’m just going to take these...” his grin widened again and he winked, “and head on out. But take care of yourself, okay? I can’t do this without you. I wouldn’t want to.”

It wasn’t quite a love confession, but it was as close as Chat would let himself get these days. And since it really  _ wasn’t _ a love confession, he did a double-take at how Ladybug flushed bright red and whimpered again.

“Uh…”

“Go! Just go!” Ladybug said, whacking her head with a fist again.

Chat shuffled over to the chimneystack where he’d left his headband, never taking his wide eyes off her. Then, as he heard her earrings chirp for the last time, he quickly vaulted over the roof and away, opting for taking a circuitous route back to school. By now it must already be halfway through his next class, but he could always claim to have been unintentionally locked or blocked into his hiding place during the akuma attack.

\----

Adrien got home from school that day and took the time to transfer his cat ears to a place of honor on his shelf before calling Plagg out of his shirt. Plagg hovered in front of him, nubs crossed, and Adrien fixed him with a serious expression.

“What happened today, Plagg? Why didn’t the transformation hide the cat ears I was already wearing? Is something wrong with the miraculous?” He cupped his hand protectively over the ring. “Should I tell Ladybug?”

Plagg sniffed. “There’s nothing wrong with my ring. And I  _ told _ you I wasn’t going to touch those ears- that includes transforming you. That magic is  _ me _ after all.”

Adrien scoffed. “What, seriously? You’re going to put my identity at risk like that?”

“I’m a kwami of my word! I said I wasn’t going to touch them, and I won’t.” Plagg stuck his nose in the air. “You can’t blame me for Ladybug’s little meltdown. It’s not  _ my _ fault someone might recognize the same ears on Adrien and Chat Noir. You should stop wearing them altogether, just in case,” he finished with a sly glance over his tiny shoulder.

Adrien rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to do that. I like them! And I absolutely  _ can _ blame you! You’re the one who decided not to hide them!” He sighed. “But you’re right. Chat Noir can’t be seen wearing the same electronic cat ears as Adrien Agreste. No matter how blind you say people are, that’s too big of a clue to my identity, especially for people who  _ do _ know both sides of me.” His face brightened. “Still, there’s no reason I can’t still wear them as Adrien! Who knows? Maybe I’ll start a new fashion trend!”

Plagg made a retching noise, but Adrien ignored it and took his cat ears down again, settling them onto his head.

\----

Adrien wore the cat ears at school any time he could for the next week, and eventually his classmates just started to accept them- even Marinette. She’d been acting weird around him for so long that he almost didn’t make the connection between Ladybug’s response to his other cat ears and hers… but he did notice. She could hardly look at him whenever he wore the ears, her clumsiness skyrocketed like never before, and he was starting to get concerned.

One morning, he happened to be later to school than normal because an early morning re-do photoshoot had run a little too long, and accidentally crashed into a rushing Marinette when exiting the locker room. 

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry Adrien!” she said, picking herself up off the floor. Adrien just sat up and started helping her gather her things off the floor, happy that her mad rush seemed to have short-circuited her tendency to stutter.

“It’s fine, Marinette,” he said, winking at her again. “Actually I wanted to talk to you… do my cat ears bother you?”

Marinette froze in the act of reaching for a pencil. “Uuum… no?”

“Really? Because, well, you always avoid even looking at me when I wear them…”

He risked a glance at her face and his heart dropped at the positively pained look on her face. “Oh, I see. Okay, well… I guess I’ll stop wearing them at school. It’s just… I can’t really wear them anyplace else except my room, and-”

“NO!” Marinette shouted, suddenly grabbing onto his shoulders and forcing him to look at her. Not that it really mattered, since her own eyes were pinched shut. “Don’t do that- don’t stop doing something you like just because  _ I _ …” She cut herself off and let out a long breath, releasing the tension in her shoulders at the same time. Finally she opened her eyes and looked at him properly for the first time in a week. Adrien was stunned by how much her blue eyes shocked him after not seeing them directly for such a long time.

“I’m sorry, Adrien. It’s just… you really do look like Chat Noir with them on, and…” She looked guilty, then shook her head. “It’s no use, is it Kitty? I can’t go back to not knowing.”

Adrien’s eyes widened. “Uuuum… what?” he asked intelligently. 

He didn’t visit Marinette as Chat Noir- well, maybe a  _ few _ times, but… certainly not enough for her to have given him a nickname as Chat Noir. Especially not  _ that _ nickname!

Marinette sighed, letting go of his shoulders and sitting down on the floor. She idly picked up the pencil she’d been reaching for and started rolling it between her fingers. “It’s okay. I mean, it was a shock, but… in the end I think it’s a good thing that I know.” She looked up then and her expression was almost fierce. “But you really should stop wearing those ears- or if not that, then at least order some different covers, so you don’t look so much like your alter ego! Not white, though!” she added, her eyes widening, and her voice rising in pitch to her usual slightly-nervous-when-talking-to-him tone. “Anything but white! Or black. Calico! Go with- well, no, because all calicos are female, and you’re definitely not a girl-”

It was Adrien’s turn to grab Marinette by the shoulders. “Marinette,” he said, hardly daring to hope. “You’ve had at least one miraculous before, so I trust you, but…” he bit his lip, suddenly remembering the mouse ear lucky charm Ladybug had conjured right after he’d shown up to fight Bobble Head with two sets of cat ears. But there was no reason they would have needed Multimouse for that fight. Could… could he really be that lucky?

“It  _ was _ you, wasn’t it? During Kwamibuster- first I thought of  _ you _ , because I saw you sneaking off to the bathroom right after Ms. Mendeleiev revealed those pictures of our kwamis, and I was so  _ happy _ … but Plagg convinced me to stop thinking about it. Only then I saw all those kwamis flying around with you when you wore the mouse miraculous. They can’t be out unless their miraculouses are worn, and there’s only one person Master Fu would have trusted so much.” He took a deep breath. “I got it right the first time, didn’t I- when you showed up and I called you Ladybug? Only you must have tricked me, maybe with the fox miraculous… please,” he said, closing his eyes and leaning forward slightly to bump her forehead with his. “Please, tell me I’m right. Marinette... you’re Ladybug aren’t you?”

Her shoulders had tensed up again when he grabbed them, but after a long moment he felt them relax and she sighed. “Yes, it’s me, kitty. I’m sorry. I should have told you the next day, but… I’m not so brave when it comes to revealing… anything, really. Especially not when it matters so much to me. Our identities…” she trailed off, and he heard the concern in her tone. “But it’s not right for me to know and you not to. That’s not what partners do.”

He hugged her. It was the only thing  _ to _ do, really. He wasn’t quite sure whether to laugh or to cry, all he knew was that this was the best day of his life. Then it hit him and he started chuckling.

“What’s so funny?” Marinette asked, and he heard the familiar teasing tone of Ladybug in her voice.

“It’s just… I can’t believe I outed myself with a pair of electric cat ears!”

“W-well… if you hadn’t shown up to that akuma  _ still wearing them…!” _ Marinette sputtered.

Adrien pulled back, still chuckling. “Hey Plagg, you wanna explain to Ladybug why that happened?” A muted hiss from his shirt pocket first had Marinette’s eyes widening and then she too, started chuckling.

“Oh no… Plagg doesn’t like the ears, does he?”

“They’re unnatural!” came a tiny voice, though Plagg still refused to come out.

“Plagg!” A different tiny voice issued from the little round purse Marinette always carried, and it was Adrien’s turn to widen his eyes and he realized that was where Tikki hid out all day. A second later, the little red kwami zipped out into the open. She gave Adrien a brief smile.

“Hello, Adrien! I can’t say I’m completely happy you two revealed yourselves, but what’s done is done, and maybe you two can at least be happy together now.” She shrugged. “Now, do you mind if I kidnap Plagg for a bit? We have some things to  _ discuss. _ ”

Adrien grinned. “Help yourself, little lady.” 

He held his overshirt open so Tikki could zip in, but his eyes fixated on Marinette’s face. She had that borderline terrified expression again, and her face was beet red, but… suddenly he considered that to be encouraging rather than concerning. He hardly noticed Plagg’s complaints as Tikki dragged him over to Marinette’s purse.

“Well,  _ that _ sounded promising…” he said, once the kwamis were out of sight again, his smile slowly morphing into a smirk. “Could it be that-”

“Don’t say it!” Marinette demanded, clapping a hand over his mouth. She was back to looking fierce, though her face was still brick red. “I want to say it myself! Adrien, I… you. You were the other boy. Th-the one I-I’m in... love with…” she trailed off as Adrien took the opportunity to kiss the palm of her hand, before gently pulling it around so it cradled his cheek. 

Still holding her hand in place, he leaned in until their foreheads were touching again and softly said, “You know, I think I was starting to fall for you even outside the mask. Your opinion is unbearably important to me, and… you don’t exactly hang up your cape and become a different person when you’re not transformed, so everything I love about Ladybug was all displayed in you, too. ”

Her eyes widened. “Really?”

He nodded, and her own expression softened. “Same here, kitty. I couldn’t keep myself from noticing all your good qualities, even though I tried to tell myself differently. Of course, now it all makes sense.”

Adrien sighed happily. “May I?” he asked. She nodded, and then he was kissing her and it was everything he’d ever dreamed of. 

They were both late to class, but neither of them cared.

\----

Nino glanced over the reception room before standing up and gently tapping his spoon on the side of his champagne glass. The talking petered out and then he was the focus of the entire room.

“First of all,” he began, “I’d like to thank Adrien for asking me to be his best man today. We’ve been friends for a very long time- ever since I found out his only friend up to that point was someone who will, in order to keep the peace, remain nameless-”

“Hey!”

Nino smirked, but ignored the outburst from a certain blond seated further down the head table, and continued smoothly. “So we’ve had years to get to know one another. And though our interests have gone in different directions and we don’t see each other  _ every _ day anymore,” he turned to look directly at the groom, “I’m happy to say, you’re still my best bud Adrien, and I only want happiness for you and Marinette.”

He saw Marinette grab Adrien’s arm and lean into it, both of them smiling and Adrien wiping an  _ actual tear _ from his eye. Nino shook his head a little and waited for the chorus of ‘awws’ and scattered applause to die down.

“And now,” he said, turning back to the assembled guests, “I need to brag on myself a bit, because, despite the  _ many _ plots to confess that Marinette came up with, and the  _ multiple _ times Adrien swore to me that she was ‘just a friend,’ you have  _ me _ to thank for finally getting these two together!” He grinned at the laughter that followed that. “No, it’s true! I once gave him a pair of electronic cat ears-” more laughter “-and I swear to god!  _ that’s _ how they figured out that they were meant for each other!”

“More like Marinette finally saw that I’m a complete  _ dork _ , and stopped being so scared of confessing to me!” Adrien put in, making his bride hide her face in his sleeve. 

Alya wasn’t sitting next to him, since she was on the Bride’s side of the table as the Matron of Honor, but she started raising her eyebrows at him in a clear ‘get on with it’ look. Nino smirked back at her. “I could tell you all many,  _ many _ stories about everything that went on between them, but in the end, we all ended up here- where we should be, celebrating the union of these two fantastic people. Thankfully,” he went on, speaking over the renewed chorus of ‘awws,’ “we already know that being married isn’t going to kill our friendship.” He held up his own left hand, pointing to the ring on his finger, before raising his glass. “So here’s to you, bro. Congrats on finally making it legal.” Everyone took a sip, but Nino wasn’t  _ quite _ done. “And, I have one final gift for you.”

So saying, Nino pulled a small gift bag from under his seat and walked over to Adrien. Loud laughter rang out as he shoved a brand new pair of electronic cat ears onto his head. Then he did the same to Marinette (a little more gently to avoid the tiara) before sitting back down. Nino smirked as he saw the bridal-themed ears (one pair white with tiny veils fluttering from the point of the ears, the other black with little bow-ties where the inside of the ear showed pink) stand to attention, signalling his best friends’ joy and happiness to everyone in the room.


End file.
